pgraded MH-60S SIM ready at NAS North Island

April 24, 2013

April 24, 2013, Tampa, Fla. - CAE USA today announced that the United States Navy has declared an updated MH-60S Sierra operational flight trainer (OFT) as ready-for-training at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island near San Diego, Calif.

This MH-60S OFT, originally manufactured by Lockheed Martin, was completely upgraded by CAE to add new technologies and ensure concurrency with other MH-60S training devices as well as the operational MH-60S helicopters.

"We were able to complete this major technology refresh on the original MH-60S operational flight trainer on-schedule while working closely with the Navy to ensure minimal training downtime," said John Lenyo, president/general manager, CAE USA. "CAE is very proud of the partnership we have established with the Navy on both the MH-60S and MH-60R training programs, and will continue to leverage our experience and world-class simulation technologies to help the Navy lower risk, reduce costs and most importantly, prepare helicopter aircrews for mission success."

The technology refresh and updates to the fixed-based MH-60S OFT included the addition of motion seats, upgraded image generator visual system, and a new Barco CD2260 visual display system. CAE also performed significant engineering updates to re-architect the hardware and software computing designs to bring this MH-60S OFT to a common architecture with the Navy's suite of CAE-built MH-60S training devices.

CAE is currently the prime contractor responsible for the design and manufacture of MH-60S OFTs and weapons tactics trainers (WTTs), as well as MH-60R tactical operational flight trainers (TOFTs), for the U.S. Navy. CAE began work on the MH-60S training program in June 2004. At that time, CAE won a competitive procurement to design and manufacture MH-60S OFTs and WTTs. Prior to CAE's involvement on the MH-60S training program, the Navy had already procured two MH-60S OFTs, including the first MH-60S OFT that CAE has now updated. Since June 2004, CAE has designed and manufactured seven additional MH-60S OFTs as well as five MH-60S WTTs for the U.S. Navy.